Great food is like great sex. The more you have the more you want. ~Gael Greene

Last weekend was the local agricultural show, not like the Royal Show in Perth or other country fairs that I have been to. No rides, no sideshow alley, no country womens associations comps... but they did have sales stalls for local folk to check out the latest in dairy technology, equine fashions, fertilizer and feed. The school being semi ag and equine and having the centre for history of the Icelandic horse, we felt we should be there. In order to encourage people to visit our little booth we also served up some local delicacies, such as arctic charr pate and súrmjólk fromage. Súrmjólk is sort of a mix between buttermilk and yoghurt... anyway by the time our cook Óli had done his thing this dessert was magic, and along with the fish pate went down a treat.

This is María Gréta, she helped me out on the Saturday morning, she also works for me in the office at Hólar.

Here he is the main man - the cook at Hólar - Óli frá Hellulandi, he is amazing, see the plates on the table - almost empty, it seemed like as soon as we put one platefull down it disappeared.

There were ofcourse some animals on show. Absolutely amazing weather....

Here is a four horned sheep - we have a few of these here - my uncle used to breed them. It was a pretty good weekend - but tiring - standing around smiling handing out food. Which ofcourse meant that the lawn did not get mowed.

Three weeks ... and it is almost knee high - looks green though!

Great news today, Olga and Ross are arriving on the 29th - and bonus - they are flying direct to Akureyri! Am so looking forward to seeing them. Hope the weather holds and stay as nice as it has. The berries are amazing and hey - Olga can go and do the sheep round up - I wonder if Ross will be keen too.....

To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring - it was peace. ~Milan Kundera

The end has come to a fantastic weekend which began on Saturday with mum and I accompanying Guðný - archaeologist extraordinaire to a dig that she has been working on last week. She is currently registering all graveyards in the Skagafjörður area. In order to register a cemetary - she first needs to verify that that is exactly what it is - hence the search for bones is on... The bones and graves would then give an indication of the time that the cemetaries were in use. Often these sites are located on farms... The one we went to was just north of S´krók.

Freyja enjoying the freedom of being out in the country side... Now after many test trenches Guðný had finally found a grave and was here to take photos and register details about the site and also try and work out exactly when the grave was dug. Apparently the only clue so far is that it was after the 1104 eruption. If any of the technical details or information that I have written is wrong then my sincere apologies - I am sure Guðný will set me straight and then I will make changes. We had fantastic weather and on a day like that I really envy her her job, however, knowing that more often than not the weather can be abissmal I do realise that the reality of her work is actually a lot worse... Still I want to be an archaeologist when I grow up

This is the grave a a woman - perhaps in her twenties, her head rests on a pillow of turf - to make it easier for her to see the east on the day of resurection... It is so beautiful.

a closer look at her head. She will stay in her resting place as the bones are not in a condition that would be suitable for removal - you can see the vegetation / roots that are growing out of her head.

Whilst Guðný and I were at the gravesite, mum was busy picking berries, Freyja spent her time running between the two of us - just to make sure we were all where we should be. She managed to get her rope stuck under a rock on the other side of the river, total panic ensued.. However, by the time I had made my way to cross the river she had managed to work her way loose. Just as well, I was feeling particularly heroic and she was on a rocky hillside...

In order to get a better indication of age Guðný removed the lower mandible to get a closer look at her teeth, Freyja also wanted a sniff - don´t worry no licking or biting or other animal contact took place. Her teeth looked really quite good, however it seemed that she had a bit of a protruding jaw...

Mandible back in place. She will be covered up tomorrow and allowed to remain in her resting place, having provided all the information that she can about life or rather death here in Skagafjörður.

The final shot of us - mæðgurnar - a great Icelandic word for mothers and daughters. Freyja not happy about losing the freedom that she had been enjoying.

After this I headed off to Askaffi to help out with the afternoon shift, served over 30 hot chocolates, sold lots of cakes, coffees and teas at the best little coffee shop in the fjord - located at the best open air museum in Iceland - Glaumbæ.

That night I cooked rauðspretta whole in the oven - a first for me and even if I say so myself it was excellent. Dessert was ofcourse fresh berries and cream.

My eldest brother - as you can see he seems quite happy with the meal!

Later that night my nephew, Guðný and I hit the only night spot in S´krók, and it actually had more that 5 people present... amazing...
Today, Guðný the dog and I went up to the top of Tindastóll - finally. The view was fantastic - but i did not take my camera so have to wait to post pictures until after I get some from G. Mum came along too - we dropped her of at the base of the mountain to pick more berries, we picked her up ten feet from where we dropped her off 3 hours earlier - there were plenty of berries, aðalbláber and krækiber... yummm guess what will be for dessert all of august and september... I so love this time of year.

Next week, we will walk up Mölduxi - the little mound above the town. I have walked it once before but never reached the top - I apparently tried to go up to the very top on the wrong side... (you can actually drive nearly all the way up - but I think we should walk it - especially if the weather is good). Work tomorrow, not looking forward to it, still it´s a living.

Some people say a man's best friend is the dog. Mine is Nature. ~Ward Elliot Hour

Went for a little drive up above the town to check out the berries. They are not quite ready - but almost there.

Mum was loving it - this is by far her most favourite time of year.

I promised my sister that I would take some pictures of mums garden for her. She has this really lovely little flower bed around the flag pole.

Mum checking out the "wilderness" patch, she has transplanted Icelandic wild flowers here and they have really taken off.

Freyja enjoying the sun and the freedom of berry picking area.

Me trying to soak up a few rays and trying to talk the dog...

Not much happening at the moment, work is in full swing - far too many things to do and I really am not on top of things as I should be, however, things will hopefully be on the improve. The weather as can be seen from the above photos, has been excellent. It´s a little cooler at the moment but still quite nice.
Well, the dog is whining at me and giving me the "look" so I reckon it may be time for a little walkies. She probably has a "need" - she ate the lamb curry that we were having for dinner.

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. ~John Muir

It all has to start with the dog ofcourse! She was most distressed seeing me start to pack my backpack and obviously on my way to somewhere.
The somewhere is Austurdalur, a long valley to the south in skagafjörður which is the valley along which the eastern glacial river runs.

This is the back pack complete with sneekers for the river crossings and norwegian walking sticks to help me keep my balance - I owe my life to those sticks!

Maggi his pack and all our other crap... yes I had the runs all day - not at all sure that I would make it. 25k treck on day one and 10 on day two... hmmm

Just before we reached our destination on friday night the bus got stuck in the sand... we had by this stage driven for 3 hours along roads I never want to see again. I am now officially phobic about bus trips in the Icelandic interior.

Once we reached our destination the temperature had gone down to 2° C and we being us decided to grill our meat - all the rest were already eating sandwiches and noodles... but hey we are extreme..

As I said it was cold....

Time to take off.. this is the group all looking rather ready to go

You can just barely see the bus and the hut where we stayed in the far distance... I thought by this stage I would probably die somewhere along the trail.

This is where the river that ran by the hut/camping area meets the glacial river, notice the difference in colours.

Maggi putting on the sun screen whilst a cross atlantic jet flies over. Behind the hill behind Maggi is Hofsjökull one of Icelands many glaciers and the glacier that feeds the river that we will be following.

more walking.... This part of the landscape is so arid, so typical of central Iceland.

After 7k´s of up it came to going back down into the valley... this is the view down - can you see a trail.. no neither did I... did I mention that I am scared of heights????

You may be able to make out three figures on the hill coming down, the one in the middle is me.. I had to have help to make it to the bottom, fell on my ass a couple of times, lost footing, felt dizzy, you name it I had it.. God what a wuss I was.

After the down hill there was a bit of a stream crossing which involved jumping between large rocks... I fell on my face ofcourse, but was extremely happy to have made it down the hill and over the stream, the weather as you can see was amazing!

After a bit of a hike, we had to cross a river, Fossá, it was cold and it was quite a distance, unfortunately the picture below doesn´t actually give a full indication of how bloody far it actually was (or perhaps felt), the water was really really really cold and came up over the knees.

It was really pretty though, it looks as if there is actual land in the middle and towards the other shore, believe me this is an illusion - they are just rocks sticking out of very very cold water, that also had a pretty hefty current.

keep going, oh soo pretty but only just half way there.

Another break in the sunshine, Maggi soaking up the rays. (As you can see from the reflection his aus tan is all gone)

The next river crossing, a lot shorter and alot warmer, when the guides had told us this we had not believed them but they were right - this one was a breeze. Hvítá is the name of the river, there was some grafitti on the other side from the late 1800's good to know things don´t change.

This is the forrest in Fagrahlíð, the oldest natural birch forrest in Iceland - believed to have been untouched, perhaps an indication of what Iceland was like before the vikings came with the horses, sheep, goats and need for kindling. (7pm and still at least 2 hours of hiking to go)

Where the hell is the hut, every corner, every hill one hoped the hut was about to show itself...

Made it and the sun goes down.

Next day and off we set.

Our destination is at the base of the hill/mountain far in the distance. - but hey it´s a sinch, I no longer had a sleeping bag in my pack and no more hills, no more river crossings, just a flying fox/box thing at some stage... we will worry about that later.

Oh, did I say no more river crossings, it´s just a stream with a few very slippery rocks.... Maggi came after this guy and actually nearly came a cropper, I meant to take a photo of him going over but I was so tired that I couldn´t figure out which mossie net man was which. The shirtless guys are the two Gisli´s, Gisli Runar our main guide is on the rock in the stream, the other Gisli is at the end of the line - he looked after the laggers like moi.

At last a bridge to cross a river.

Another great break, we were tired, Maggi had an allergic reaction to nature which made things not too pleasant. But we were coping quite well at this stage and I was no longer the last man in the line.

Above our last stop were these wonderful bassalt formations. Not the usual straight up and down stuff but actual rosettes created during a volcanic eruption. Can you see the face in the formation below?

finally reached Árbæjar church, this church seats 40, and has a service once a year - to get there is quite difficult but once a few years ago 400 people came to the service (the service is radioed to cars that are on the other side of the river... ) Needless to say an historic and amazing site.

Last downhill, we had to go down and the walk along the river bank, which sometimes wasn´t a bank but rather rockfall, loose rock fall, yet again I fell to the back of the line and had to be molly coddled along.

Last challenge the final river crossing, this time across the eastern glacial river, in a box, held up by two steel wires and pulled across the river by the third in the control of Gisli.... do I look scared, - I was shitting myself...

If I look like I am smiling - I am faking it... I closed my eyes after this and once I reached the other side - faked it and said -that was a piece of cake....

On the other side armed with a shot of whiskey - don´t we all look extremely pleased with ourselves??

This was an amazing trip, I am so glad that I did it..

After this we were taken by bus back to Bakkaflöt where we all settled into hot tubs with a beer and let the hot water take out some of our pain... the beer fixed the rest. Then we had dinner of roast lamb, rather yum, before heading back home at around 9.30pm.

I can still feel pain when I think of the back pack, but hey it was worth it... now the question is - what next?
The photos are from Maggi´s camera as well as mine, I have uploaded them on flickr if you want to check them all out - be warned there are lots and lots and lots